Shakespeare’s Globe unveils 2023 summer season as it reduces number of £5 tickets

Shakespeare’s Globe has unveiled its summer plans for 2023.

Freshly announced today, the London landmark venue has cut its number of £5 tickets from 600 to 300, with a number of £10 tickets also available. The Globe said today: “Since 1997, the Globe has proudly offered £5 standing tickets. Hundreds of the most economically accessible ticket in a major UK theatre will remain available for every performance, and now hundreds more will be available at £10 as well. Audiences are advised to book early to secure them.” The Globe added that: “A limited number of £5 tickets will also be released close to each performance, providing a last chance way to access the cheapest tickets. Further details will be announced in spring 2023.”

Speaking yesterday in a pre-season roundtable, artistic director Michelle Terry acknowledged that programming and choices had to be done with a “commercial imperative” in mind – acknowledging just how turbulent the UK economic and theatre landscape currently is. She also emphasised that she would always remain resistant to a removal of £5 tickets in their entirety, despite “endless discussions” on the subject.

Opening the season will be a brand-new staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Elle While of Pentabus Theatre. Terry, who regularly takes on roles as part of her seasons, will play Puck in the new production, which runs from 21 April to 12 August 2023.

Reflecting on a research and development session for the new staging, Terry states: “One of the final lines of the play is ‘If we shadows have offended…’ – but I’ve never seen a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that offends me.”

Following this will be a new production of The Comedy of Errors, running from 12 May to 29 July. Directed by the theatre’s associate artistic director Sean Holmes, the piece is said to be a “full Elizabethan experience” told through a contemporary lens.

Next up will be a new production of Macbeth from Abigail Graham, running from 21 July to 28 October, while the fourth major production over the summer will be a version of As You Like It from Ellen McDougall (Watch on the Rhine), running from 18 August to 29 October.

For youngsters, the venue will present the return of Midsummer Mechanicals, playing from 22 July to 26 August and co-produced with Splendid Productions.

Terry said: “2023 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Without this collection, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost forever including four well known and beloved plays: The Tempest, Comedy of Errors, As You Like It and Macbeth. At a time when we all stand to lose and gain so much, at a time in which we all face huge questions about who, what, and why we are, theatre remains one of the greatest and safest ways for a society to debate with itself and ask these questions.

“This summer, with those four folio plays, along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we hope to surprise, challenge, excite, illuminate, provoke, and delight, as we continue to put Shakespeare to work for now and for our future on this incredible Globe.

“In our theatre, our Wooden ‘O’, made from a 1000 oak trees, the Thames outstretched beside it, the sky above, and the earth below, in which nature, human nature and our in-human nature congregate, converse, commune and connect; what better place to experience these extraordinary plays, in this extraordinary playhouse, at this most extraordinary of times.”